The difference today is that technology gives us the opportunity to produce more, in a 24 hours cycle.

How cool is that?!

I surely am not asking you anything you didn’t already asked yourself, but is “producing more”, the goal?

Maybe…

And if so, why?

In the 10 years I worked in the fashion industry, the goal was always to make a higher profit margin from one year to the other. It was a “do more and better, with less and less budget, year after year and make sure the clients will buy, buy, buy” mindset. My buyer’s colleagues and I had the saying: “If only we had a crystal ball…”.

Regardless of your industry, I know some or many of these following things will sound familiar:

– Produce more with less people

– Deliver quality with lower cost materials

– Design higher quality products with 80% of the staff at entry level

– Promote an employee to lead a team with little or no continuous soft skills development

– Make more money with lower investments

– Work around the clock to get or stay ahead

– [Add your own]…

Let me be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that mindset.

It can actually be a fantastic set up for creativity, innovation, talent development, pushing limits, increasing profitability and learning to use resources fully and effectively.

Unfortunately, that mindset of “doing more with less” brought to far, highlights the trends of:

– Chasing our tails

– Fighting one fire after another

– Being available 24/7 or else we get behind and turn into a pumpkin

– Being first or die

– Knowing the latest and greatest from the past hour or else we are irrelevant

– Being performant in mindfulness or you won’t know the meaning of the Universe and everything

– [Add your own]…

The issue is that we are dismissing the shades of grey, and treating everything as black or white. When was the last time you stopped and ponder on the amount of energy you spend in ALL areas of your life, without looking for an instant resolution?

We lost the art of balance at the cost of more, more, more, for the benefit of filling all the holes. The thing is… holes ARE part of balance.

This is where I usually get the: “But you don’t understand Jen, I have no choice”. Or the “I know Jen, but once I get here, THEN I will be able to breathe.

…Then weeks, months and years go by… and we are STILL out of breath.

Forget about asking, “HOW do I restore balance?”, and practice asking more often “WHAT can I do to restore balance in 2019?”.

The Vitruvian Man might be an ideology in terms of proportion and balance with the Universe, but it is through self-reflection on our current posture(s) in the face of imbalances and the energy we allocate everyday, that we can start seeing strategies to restore our balance.